Most closely associated with Mediterranean cooking but also very prevalent in Asian food, the…

crusty bread, to serve

Method

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the leeks and celery, and cook for 8 mins until soft. Add the courgettes and garlic. Cook gently for 5 mins more.

Pour in the stock and simmer, covered, for 10 mins. Add the asparagus, peas and broad beans, and cook for a further 4 mins, until just cooked through. Stir in the chopped basil and season well. Scatter with basil leaves and serve with crusty bread.

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Comments, questions and tips

Comments (9)

craftybeggar24th May, 2015

3.75

The first time I made this I wasn't overly impressed, it just seemed like green veg in thin veg stock. Second time I added some new potatoes and liquidised half of the soup and poured it back into the pan. Made a much better soup.

The first time I made this I wasn't overly impressed, it seemed to be green veg in a thin stock. Second time I added some new potatoes, cooked for slightly longer and then liquidised half of it and stirred it back into the remainder. It made a thicker soup that wasn't too thick, tasted better as well.

Absolutely fantastic - I usually hate eating green vegetables and find it really difficult to make them palatable, but I made this for me and my mum yesterday and we both loved it. I even shared the rest with her again for lunch today! A splash of white wine added for a few minutes before the stock is poured in may add a bit more flavour, but this soup has plenty of flavour already!

Just had my second bowlful having made this for the first time yesterday. A very substantial and healthy soup. Like some other posters I agree that this can be tweeked to suit personal tastes. For me, I will add some green lentils which will add extra flavour, body and fibre and possibly a little heat with some chilli. I did remove a bowlful of the veg then gave the remainder a short blast with a hand blender then returned the veg. Will do this again.

This is very similar to a few other soups that I've made, but I've never added asparagus to a soup before so thought I'd give it a go! I swapped the basil for basil pesto and added the same amount of peas as broad beans. I also think soups like this with a lot of green vegetables need a little something else, so I also added butter beans. Any kind of white beans would make a good addition to this I think.

Loved this. As with some of the above comments, I used what we had in the fridge. Therefore, an onion instead of leeks, no garlic and a tbsp of pesto to give extra flavour. Also added a handful of baby pasta as I had no broad beans. 5 a day in a bowl!

I made this for lunch today. I didn't have any celery in the house as husband doesn't eat it so just used more leeks. Didn't have any asparagus either but just added some extra peas and beans and added chives rather than basil. Really excellent - light and full of flavour on a sunny day.

I made this tonight and only deviated from the recipe by adding a few chopped new potatoes to the soup as I added the stock. It was absolutely delicious, and even our teenage daughter said so!!Adding grated Parmesan to the top of the soup when it's dished out is a really yummy addition!.This recipe is definitely a "keeper"!! .. can't wait to make it again!

Made this last night, though I took a lot of poetic license due to fridge availability! I used spring onions instead of leeks, a long marrow instead of courgettes, and I added green peppers to make up for the lack of broad beans. To add insult to injury, I used fresh chives instead of basil! It was delicious :)

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